KIFTI AL-KIFTI, ib'n II lane), Ara bian historian and vizier: b. Kift, Upper Egypt, 1172; d. 1248. Born of one of the best families in the country he was well educated at Kilt and Cairo. His father holding a position under the Sultan in Jerusalem, which had lately been conquered by Saladin (1187), Al-Kifti went to that city, where he became interested in studying the life of the people and the result of the conquest of the country on the inhabit ants. These historical studies he was destined to continue all his life. In 1202 he was made vizier by the Sultan, a position he held until the death of the latter in 1216. But he was soon again called to the highest office in the land under the Sultan (1219-31) and again for the latter part of his life (1236-48). His ad ministration was notable in the history of Ara bian viziers. He not only attended strictly to state affairs and succeeded in helping greatly the prosperity of the country as a whole, but he encouraged literature and art and learning of every kind; and he set the example himself by undertaking extensive research work and writing histories. His work in this latter field
was very extensive and highly esteemed in his day; but only one of his histories has, sur vived to our day, the others having been de stroyed during the Mongol invasion of 1260, only 12 years after his death. His one sur viving work is known as (Information of the Wise Men Regarding the History of the Sci entists' (Kitab Ikhhar al'Ulama bikhbar al Hukama), and has come down to us only in part and that simply in extensive extracts made in another work in 1249. It treated of Mo hammedan, Syriac and Greek philosophers and scientists. Consult Muller, A., U eb e r das sogenannte ta'rikh al-hukama des Ibn el (Proceedings of the Eighth International Con gress of Orientalists, Vol. I, Leyden 1891).